‘You never said my peer review was confidential’ — scientist challenges publisher : Nature News & Comment

"Are peer-reviewers free to openly share the content of their reviews if journal editors haven’t explicitly told them not to? Jon Tennant, a scientist-turned-outreach specialist, thinks so.

Tennant had reviewed a research paper submitted to the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. He recommended that the authors’ new approach to studying fossil seabird fauna should be published. The journal’s editors agreed and published the paper.

Tennant, who now works as communications director at ScienceOpen, an online platform that promotes open-access research, wanted to receive credit for his unpaid peer-review work. With permission from the authors of the paper, he decided to openly post the text of his review on Publons, a platform for sharing reviews.

But his post was turned down. Publons told him that the journal’s publisher, Elsevier, requires reviewers to obtain permission from journal editors before posting a review.

That was not part of the deal — at least, not explicitly — Tennant argues. 'I didn’t sign a confidentiality agreement, and I was not aware that I had implicitly agreed to the journal’s policies,' he says. Since he retains the copyright for his review, he argues that he is free to publish its text if he has not made any other pre-agreement with the journal."